Calling all Kansas City bacon lovers…do you have plan this weekend? Even if you do, we’ve got the perfect reason to move that family reunion down to the West Bottoms. The Rehabilitation Institute of Kansas City is hosting their first ever Bacon-Fest on Saturday, August 28th. Guests will enjoy live music with a special performance by Bacon Shoe, bacon-centered food samplings by local restaurants (including The Original Bacon Explosion), signature bacon cocktails, a Bacon Eating Contest, a Best Bacon Recipe Contest and more!

With your Labor Day BBQ right around the corner it’s only fitting that we hit you with another round of The Monthly Rubdown…only this time it gets a little saucy. Since we’re getting into the habit of featuring the biggest and baddest competition barbecue products on the market, we figured that it’s time to bring out the sauce from one of the winningest teams in competition history. In fact, this sauce helped win the American Royal Barbecue contest an astounding 7 years in a row!!!

To talk about traditional low & slow BBQ most people would assume that it ends just at the Canada US border. However the Canadian Competitive BBQ scene though is alive and well. From coast to coast Canadians are putting their own unique spin on traditional low and slow style of BBQ.

Recently Jason and I started doing a webcast for Sun Publications, aptly name “The BBQ Addicts Show“. I know, totally creative but I guess it gets the point across. I voted for “The BBQ Addicts Act Like Monkeys And Then Cook Show” but no one would agree with me. Here is a press release from Sun about the show for some additional info.

The show is going to be geared for beginners in the first few shows, then we’ll get into some more advance techniques including injections, making your own rubs and barbecue sauces, maybe even cooking the Bacon Explosion!

Cooking up a barbecue feast for your friends and family can (and will) be an all day affair. Depending on the size of your cut, briskets and pork butts can take every bit of 18 hours to slow smoke to perfection. As much as I like starving myself all day in anticipation of the gluttony that’s soon to come, my willpower tends to falter somewhere around the noon hour. Since the smoker is already chugging away, there’s no need to power up the oven for that well deserved mid-day snack. Instead, I prefer to toss in a few stuffed jalapeno peppers…especially the ones dubbed “Atomic Buffalo Turds”!!!

The Monthly Rubdown is back and this time we’re bringing you the rubs and sauce from our absolute favorite barbecue restaurant in Kansas City. Granted, KC is known for the legendary classics like Gates, Arthur Bryant’s and Jack Stack, but if you ask any local, they’ll point you in the direction of true Kansas City style flavor. Even Anthony Bourdain recently christened this hot spot as one his “13 Place to Eat Before You Die”. If you’ve ever had the chance to swing through, then you know exactly what Anthony is talking about.

Ever since that fateful day when we presented our Bacon Explosion™ recipe to the world, we’ve been inundated with emails, tweets, and Facebook messages from people who want to enjoy the true barbecue flavor that our original recipe calls for, but don’t have the time or means to smoke one themselves. As we announced at the Great American Barbecue, we’ve been working diligently to create a fully cooked, pre-smoked, heat and eat Bacon Explosion™ using our official Burnt Finger BBQ sauce and rub. Our hard work has finally paid off, and we’re now proud to announce our official retail launch. Behold, The Original Bacon Explosion™!!!

The 4th of July is right around the corner and people all across this great country will be firing up their barbecue pit to celebrate the 233rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately, the current economic condition may force some of us to think twice when deciding which cut of meat should grace our plate for this joyous occasion. Luckily, the geniuses over at Spike TV’s MANswers have addressed this problem by figuring out how to pack an entire grill full of meat for free!!!

Recently I had the pleasure of passing through The Great Plains on the way out to Western Kansas for a weekend of family fun. As with any road trip, I was immediately on the lookout for a local barbecue joint to sample the regional tastes. After passing through countless miles of waving wheat, a quick jaunt through a wind farm and battling a slowly increasing aroma of cow manure, we finally returned to the likes of civilization…Great Bend, KS. Little did I know that this small town is actually home to the 2008 Grand Champions of the Jack Daniels Invitational!!!

Perhaps the most eloquent description of the 4th of July was delivered by Apu from The Simpsons when he muttered to Homer: “What better way to celebrate the birth of your country then by blowing up a small piece of it!” It just so happens that I agree with Apu, but he failed to mention to the other two ingredients for successful 4th…barbecue and booze. We’d love to be able to ship you a case of Bakon Vodka and artillery shells, but Federal regulations prevail. Instead, we’re hooking you up with some barbecue related freebies, courtesy of Sara Lee, to make sure your Independence Day meat feast goes off with a bang!